THEATER REVIEW | 'HAMLET'; A Sharp-Minded Prince, Seen Up Close and Personal

By RACHEL SALTZ

Published: September 24, 2007

The Pearl Theater Company's ''Hamlet'' makes a virtue of simplicity. The director, Shepard Sobel, keeps this production, which opened last night, intimate and spare, a kind of chamber play with the role of Hamlet in high relief, as it should be.

The Pearl, a resident repertory company, has stayed true to its mission by casting one of its members, Sean McNall, in the title role. With his pleasant, open face, Mr. McNall seems at first an odd, too-light choice. But he uses his agreeable manner as a weapon that lends force to the character's quick turns to sarcasm and cruelty and anger.

Perhaps the best thing about his performance is that he makes us listen to Hamlet. The soliloquies come out in a rush, like thoughts being thought, and it's a pleasure to watch Hamlet's sharp, improvising mind at work: trying out ideas, discarding them, moving to the next in a flash. Mr. McNall also makes Hamlet's verbal dexterity vivid (best in the scene with the gravedigger, played by an excellent Robert Hock). This Hamlet really seems, in a lonely way, the smartest man in Denmark.

Also good is Jolly Abraham's self-possessed Ophelia. Ms. Abraham gives that character a stillness and intelligence that make clear why she's a match for Hamlet. Her mad scene is not, as so many are, full of wince-making little-girl babble. It's a picture of a mind unhinged, a distorted mirror of Hamlet's ''antic disposition.''

The set consists of some beaded curtains that pick up the color of the lights, a chair or two and, later, a charmingly old-fashioned grave. The costumes, mostly dark and plain, combine Elizabethan flourishes (tunics, bits of armor) with modern dress. (Glittery threads, though, make some of the fabric look cheap.)

Mr. Sobel has kept the production deliberately modest, imposing no overarching idea. On its own terms -- here is ''Hamlet,'' the real thing, with no frills -- it's a success. You may want something more: more insight, more emotion, more daring. But what you get has real value, a working company smartly engaging in Shakespeare.